RESIDENTS waiting for a promised golf course at the Sunshine Quarry site in Kealba, owned partly by Barro Group of Companies, will be waiting more than 30 years.
Barro Group executive director Peter Barro said it would take more than 30 years to fill the 4.5 million cubic metre space at the quarry, on top of which the golf course would sit.
Mr Barro said the company had been issued the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) works approval.
“We are currently preparing the base of the land fill area,” he said.
Mr Barro said filling was expected to begin sometime next year.
At the Brimbank City Council meeting on 28 August, residents’ concerns were raised by Councillor Kathryn Eriksson.
The concerns included dust coming from the direction of the quarry, where a concrete crushing plant operates 24 hours a day, along with questions over what would happened to the End Use Plan agreed to in 1996, under which most of the quarry would be filled and a nine-hole golf course created.
Mr Barro said a community liaison committee, which had been established to address residents’ concerns, found the dust was mostly coming from the North Sunshine industrial estate.
He said with the severe drought there was dust coming from everywhere, including off trucks travelling along the Western Ring Road, and from cars and general household yards.
“Barro Group has spent a considerable amount of money on improving access to and from the site, dust suppression and a wheel-washing system,” Mr Barro said.
“I think the community needs to understand there is a severe drought and dust travels from anywhere.”
Mr Barro said the filling of the quarry and creation of a golf course would take more than 30 years due to amount of fill required.
“The filling is market-dependent,” Mr Barro said.
He said increase in the amount of recycling, which was good for the environment, meant there was less fill available.
Barro Group met with Brimbank City Council and the EPA on Thursday.
“Brimbank Council has had an initial discussion with the Barro Group, and the EPA, at which there was a favourable response to developing a consultation process that will include all relevant stakeholders in the area, including community members to examine issues relating to the Sunshine Quarry area,” council city development and statutory general manager Peter Collina said.
Sunshine Quarry is owned by Mountain View Pty Ltd and Barro Group Pty Ltd.
